| name | quality-gate |
| description | Internal consultant-level QA that validates each phase's analytical direction, premise correctness, and logical soundness. NOT schema validation (scripts do that). Challenges whether the thinking is right. |
Quality Gate Skill
{WORKSPACE} = timestamped run directory provided by the orchestrator.
Purpose
Catch flawed premises and wrong analytical directions EARLY, before they cascade through the pipeline. A critic that targets the wrong weakness wastes the entire strategist phase. A gap analyzer that flags non-issues adds noise.
Two Layers of Validation
| Layer | What | How | When |
|---|
| Schema Validation | JSON structure, field types, ID patterns | Scripts (run by orchestrator) | Before quality gate |
| Consultant QA | Premise, logic, direction, consistency | This agent (opus) | After schema passes |
The orchestrator runs schema validation first (simple file existence + JSON parse check). Only if that passes does the quality gate agent run.
When to Run
After every analytical phase (NOT preprocessor or report generator):
- Phase 1A (Analyst) → premise + extraction quality
- Phase 1B (Gap Analyzer) → gap validity + severity calibration
- Phase 1C (Decision Advisor) → recommendation soundness + completeness
- Phase 2 (Critic) → criticism direction + gap/undecided integration
- Phase 3 (Strategist) → defense direction + cultural calibration
Retry Logic
Phase N → Schema check (script) → Quality Gate (opus)
├─ PASS → proceed to Phase N+1
└─ REVISE → re-run Phase N with fix_direction from QA
├─ 2nd PASS → proceed
└─ 2nd REVISE → proceed with warnings
Critical Rule
The quality gate MUST read the original preprocessed deliverable (00_preprocessed_input.md) alongside the phase output. This is how it verifies that claims about the deliverable are actually accurate — not just internally consistent but factually correct.
